Survive is the first book in the Cascade series by author Phil Maxey. This is a dystopian, post-apocalyptic book but like no other I have read before.

Amazon Description: Being locked in a military cell was Zach’s world, until the world ended.

A group of ex-military try to survive and make sense of a post-apocalyptic world destroyed by unimaginable creatures, while dealing with their own dark pasts.

We start out with each of our heroes being released from their cells. They are in the same maximum security prison in New Mexico but from different floors. They all think it’s a joke until they realize something is horribly wrong. Abbey is the first to be release and to face her monster. Cal, Michael, Zach, Fiona and Ray make it out of the prison and to a small town after being ambushed by a “Harmadillo” as they start calling it, a cross between a horse and an armadillo.

There they find transport and a cop that is injured. He gives them some information on what is being called the “Cascade,” their term for the end of the world. He ends up joining them after they stay the night in the hotel room he had holed up in. Jacob decides to go with them and they make it to another town before they are ambushed by werewolf looking things. There they take in a kid named Dee who had been hiding in his father’s office for over a month.

It’s been just a few months shy since the shit hit the fan and they are all surviving the best they know how. When Jacob, Zach and Dee go on a run to a hardware store and Dee’s house to search for his parents, they run across a conspiracy theorist who invites them back to his house. They make it back to the office building in order to help take out a bunch of the werewolf things that had made it inside and were attacking the others. They stay at the mans house a couple nights before accepting the terms that General Trow has offered from the survival camp in Austin.

They leave the house early in order to make it to their pick up point but walk into an ambush by amphibians. Shit hits the fan and gets worse for them, loosing one of their team in the process of the pick up.

I think it’s safe to say that I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE dystopian and post-apocalyptic books, regardless of zombies or not. While this might be a dystopian, post apocalyptic book, it does NOT have zombies. I am loving this take on an apocalyptic world. Zombies, plagues and viruses are something that are always the reasons behind most of these types of books.

This book features a different type of apocalypse: animals evolving at rapid rates. Humans are now on the bottom of the food chain rather than at the top. It’s a refreshing take on a very active genre! I can’t wait to read the second book in this series!

While it is a good storyline and the author is good at writing, it does NEED editing. There are misplaced words, slipped words, spelling errors and a few general mistakes that need to be edited. This book just released back in August and the reviews aren’t looking good for it because of the editing issues. I think once it gets edited, then the reviews would be better. Overall a good story despite these errors.

Amazon Description: Fans of series like The Maze Runner, The Hunger Games, and Divergent will love N.G. Simsion.

Zero prefers to keep his life simple. Although he is easily one of the largest and cleverest boys in his year, he runs from any sign of confrontation. His best friend—his only friend—is nothing like him. Obsessed with the world outside of the city walls, Lefty is always pushing the boundaries set by society’s Elite. It’s only a matter of time before they have gone too far and they’re forced to face the horrors of the “old world” on their own. Can they survive and learn to coexist with the dangerous Remnants of the old world? Are the Remnants of the old world even the worst of their problems, or do the Elite of their own society pose an even greater threat?

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Testing Zero is the first book in the Remnants of Zone Four Chronicles by author N. G. Simsion. This is a dystopian, post-apocalyptic series. Only this doesn’t deal with zombies per se.

Zero and Lefty are best friends. Kids are normally called by a letter and number, such as R-111. When you earn a nickname, that’s what you are called. Lefty got his nickname when an alligator outside the fence ended up taking off 2.5 fingers on his right hand and he had to adapt to doing everything with his left hand. Zero got his nickname because he gets into zero conflict and fighting with others and can blend into the background so much that most people don’t know he’s there.

Flea is a bully. He’s the second smallest in their class with Lefty being the smallest. Flea never takes battles on by himself, always having several of his friends with him. Lefty decides that he wants to get even with Flea which he gets even by putting a baby alligator in Flea’s desk. It bites his foot when he opens his desk and it springs out and lands on the floor.

Lefty and Zero are both sent to put it back outside the fence and to close it up and to then report to the principals office. Their punishment is to miss the graduation party that will be happening and to help babysit the new children being brought in. The next day they head off to their testing to decide where they will be living and working. Lefty and Flea end up fighting during the written test which causes Zero to jump in and try to break it up.

All three of them are taken outside the fence and into an area where it isn’t safe. Remnants are infected people. They contracted a virus that essentially kills their brains and turns them into angry, murderous people. They fight off several Remnants before a truck stops on the road and takes the three of them back to the testing area since the Elite that brought them out didn’t have the authority. They are the first three drafted in the draft which shocks them as they didn’t do well on the physical portion of the test and were automatically given zeros on the written portion of the tests.

Zero gets to thinking and has some good questions that leave this book in a cliff hanger.

I thought this book was a good take on a post-apocalyptic and dystopian book. I like the take that the author had on the Remnants and not making them into complete mindless zombies. This book is only 115 pages. I wish it would have been longer as it had so much more potential. Overall an ok read.

This two pack of portable battery chargers comes in blue and purple. They are mini: 3.5 inches long by less than an inch wide. They work really well though for being so small.

I’m a Pokemon Go player (que the haters). The game does drain my battery even with the battery saver option turned on. So i started searching for something cheap that would work. I came across these and said why the heck not. They are cheap enough.

When the battery charger is being charged, it hasa red light that is on. When it is charging a device, the light is an blue. The initial time ebb to fully charge the pack is 8 hours.

I did have issues with the purple charger. There was no red light indicating it was charging. I’d had it on the required time and it wouldn’t charge anything. So I messaged the seller. He was very helpful. He suggested letting it charge overnight and try it in the morning. I did so and it worked fine. He stated that some of the chargers didnt have the red light. He also said that if it breaks in the future to contact him.

Other than that light, I’ve had no problems with these battery packs. I take them with me everywhere I go. There is one port labeled in to charge the pack itself. There is another port labeled out to charge devices. They both come with a charging cord. If you have an Apple product, you will need a different cord to charge your device. The included cables work with my LG phone, Samsung tablet and Kindle.

It charges quickly. And almost fully for my tablet and Kindle. My phone is another story but I’m usually using it while it’s charging.

These power banks canbe wen purchased for $6.49 from Amazon. I purchased my twin set for full price. I would definitely recommend these.

100 Days in Deadland is the first book in the Deadland Saga series by Author Rachel Aukes. This book is fashioned to the likes of Dante’s Inferno where each “layer” had a different theme behind it.

The book starts out with Mia Ryan, aka Cash, on her way to a meeting at work. She bumps into a fellow coworker who is out of sorts. It only takes a few minutes before she is fighting for her life against the coworker. She kills said coworker after a good bout in the women’s restroom. She is heading up to her office when she runs into another coworker, Alan. They end up fleeing the office together and try to head to Mia’s place since it’s closer. Only, they get hit on the highway behind a traffic jam. A semi-driver, Clutch, stops and allows them on his rig, only to have Alan turn into a zombie.

Clutch agrees to take Cash, he coined the term based on how she was dressed, on for only a day. That turns into two more and eventually he quits telling her she has so many days left. On their first scouting mission to loot and check out the nearest town, they run into some of Clutch’s neighbors, the parents had both been bitten but the teenage son hadn’t been. He tells Jase that he can come to his farm when he’s ready and they continue on their way.

It doesn’t take long before they are out scouting again and end up threatened by the militia group that was working on securing the area. Since both Clutch and Cash refuse to join up, they start acting against them. They bring by truckloads of zombies and dump them over the farms gate. On the last trip, Tyler Masden from Camp Fox rolls up with his unit of men. They justify the killing of Doyle’s two men and don’t arrest Cash, Clutch or Jase. Clutch and Cash go with Tyler to Doyle’s base where Cash ends up shooting one of their men from a previous altercation. Tyler arrests Cash and takes her back to Camp Fox.

She’s released later and assumed dead in the ensuing chaos that happens while she’s locked in the brig. After a full day of traveling, she eventually makes it back to the farm to find it in a blaze. Doyle’s men set it on fire. She hunkers down in the bomb shelter and Clutch ends up joining her. Shit hits the fan quicker than expected after this hit.

Rachel Aukes is a new to me author. The cover drew me in but the story kept me glued to the pages. I couldn’t get enough. I was reading this straight through from the moment I started reading it. I liked Clutch from the start as well as Cash and Jase. It took a while for Tyler to grow on me because I thought he was sketchy. He proved me wrong. I was completely wrong on who the traitor ended up being in Camp Fox and honestly didn’t expect it to be who it ended up being.

The story is a steady pace and makes sense with the progression. I like that the book is fashioned in a Dante’s Inferno style. I honestly can’t wait to get the second book in the Deadland Saga to find out what happens to all the survivors and what happens to Cash, Clutch and the others in the new group!

Z14 is the second book in the Zombie Rules series by author David Achord.

Things ramp up a lot in this book. Zack, Macie, Julie and others return in this book. We meet more people, some good and some really bad. Zack ends up in several tights spots but ends up on the winning end each time. Fred leaves the group for over six months to go searching for his daughter in Los Angeles. He eventually returns towards the end of the book.

We learn more about the world and more about the zombies. They are evolving. Bodies aren’t decomposing on some of them and they seem to be functioning on a higher level than normal zombies. A lot of the zombies from the initial outbreak have died off. It was like Zack predicted. They just dropped and didn’t get back up.

There is a functioning military outfit who ends up dropping notes out of a Chinook helicopter. Zack and a few of the group go to the airport and talk with them. They end up making a deal. Zack is going to start a trading post there in the Nashville area. They supply him with 10K rounds of ammo and other things that would be great for trade.

By the end of the book, the group has lost several but gained a lot more. Things were looking up until they realized the zombies were evolving. One of the characters from the first book returns in this one.

This book is better than the first. Once I finished Zombie Rules, I immediately started reading this one. I couldn’t wait to sink my claws into this book and I surely am not disappointed. (I’ll probably have dreams of zombies tonight since I read two books featuring them but hey, it’s something that I dream about even when I don’t read zombie books. LOL)

I like most of the characters that are alive at the end of the book. There are a few I don’t like other than their attitudes. I was saddened by a few peoples deaths in this book and wanted so bad to bring them back.

David Achord was a new to me author when I picked up the first book over a year ago. I am so glad I happened across it and read it. The writing style is consistent, the story flows and you can’t help but love most of the characters and the story itself. There are a few editing errors (punctuation and wording) in this book but nothing major and nothing that interrupts the flow of the book.

Zombie Rules is the first book in the Zombie Rules series by author David Achord. This book is about zombies (if the title didn’t give that away).

The story starts out in the present day. Then it flashes back to a short time before the zombie apocalypse started. Zach Gunderson is a sophomore in high school. His girlfriend is Macie and his best friend is Felix. Macie and he have been together for three months and consummated their relationship. Zack ends up being pulled away from track. He goes to the parking lot to find Rick there who ends up taking him to the hospital.

Zack’s grandma had a stroke and was found by the mailman. She looked frail in the hospital but things didn’t look good for her. She ends up dying a day or two later. Rick ends up talking to Zack and he decides to go live with Rick on the farm that Rick manages for an older couple. Felix and his father go over and help pack the few things up and put it in the trailer Rick and brought along.

The world goes to hell. My monitoring the Ham Radio, they keep track of how the disease is spreading. They use different colored push pins to indicate a low, moderate or downright fall of a city. Within a week, everyplace is red. Rick and Zack maintain the farm and go on scouting missions. While out they come across a family: Don, Janet, Tommy and Julie.

They bring the family back to their place but kick them out a few days later when the family decides they are going to double-cross Rick and Zack. They move on with their lives and one night, Rick dies in his sleep. Zack buries him and keeps on with his life. Things get a whole lot more terrifying and interesting before the end of the book for our characters.

Zack is a character that I like. He doesn’t give himself enough credit as to all that he has accomplished. He creates these rules about zombies and spray paints the rules wherever he can when he adds new ones. By the end of the book, we’re up to ten rules. Mostly, they’re just observations but they make great rules when it comes to the zombies.

There are a few characters that I absolutely hate and I’m glad that some of them end up the way they do. There are a few grammatical errors in here but only a few, nothing that interrupts with the flow of the story or that bars you from figure out what is meant. The story flows well and it’s a good read.

David Achord was a new to me author and I’m really glad I took a chance on this book. I have the second book in the series and am going to be starting it shortly!!

Amazon Description: My name is Theo, and I’m a resident of Oasis, the last habitable area on Earth. It’s meant to be a paradise, a place where we are all content. Vulgarity, violence, insanity, and other ills are but a distant memory, and even death no longer plagues us.

I was once content too, but now I’m different. Now I hear a voice in my head, and she tells me things no imaginary friend should know. Her name is Phoe, and she is my delusion.

Or is she?

Note: This book contains some strong language. We felt it was important for the censorship theme of the novel. If such words offend you, you might not enjoy this book.

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I knew from the opening of this book that I was going to like it. And I did. This new post-apocalyptic/dystopian book was a great read. I couldn’t put it down once I started reading it and read it until a little after 3 am because I was hooked. I like Theo the most out of all the characters.

Theo is a Youth. Then there are Adults and Elderly. They live in Oasis which is the last habitable part on Earth. There’s a place called the Edge that separates Oasis from the Goo, the uninhabitable part of the world. Everything inside the Institute is monitored. Phoe, Theo’s imaginary friend, tells Theo things that an imaginary friend shouldn’t know. So is she real or not? That’s what Theo wants to find out and why she is HIS imaginary friend.

This is the fifth book in the Grace series by author M. Lauryl Lewis. This book was just as good as the rest but filled with TONS of surprises. This book shocked me from the beginning to the end. We gained some people but more was lost than gained. I like how the series ends but am hoping for another series. One that follows the baby, perhaps?

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Gus is back. He’s not dead like we all assumed he was. He was rescued by others who are infected and when he get’s stronger, they go to rescue Zoe and the others. Boggs and two others go on a scouting trip to get more supplies, especially for Emmett, the baby they found. Zoe stays in the lighthouse on the island with Emmett. Gus goes and saves them and takes them his new home. Zoe learns that he has a connection with a lady that lives there, one of the ones that picked her up actually. At first she’s jealous but then realizes Gus only wants her.

A girl ends up sick and turns. She kills her mother. Zoe and Gus are in the same bunker with Emmett. Zoe hears it first before waking Gus up. The lady Gus has the connection with ends up down there with them. When they emerge from their rooms, Gus gets Zoe and Emmett from the bunker. The girl runs through the bunker and there’s too many places to hide while it’s dark. Zoe runs and gets some other guards but not before hearing they were from the evacuation center and that they were after Zoe and the baby she was pregnant with. (Yes, you read that right. Our Zoe is pregnant with baby number two.)

I’ve read four of the other books in this series, the first two books and two novellas that go with it. I really enjoy the works by this author. I will say, this book needs a little bit of editing done with it. There’s some punctuation and wrong words used but still a good read overall.

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Jeremiah, Abby, Ava, Gary and others return. From book two we knew that Ava and one of the boys, Connor or Jeremiah, made it out of Connor’s place unscathed while the other was bitten. But we didn’t know which was going to end up among the undead masses. They make it to where everyone else is, that survived the ambush anyways. Jeremiah goes on a run with Gary, Marshall and Tyler while Connor stays laid up in the office of the warehouse they’re in. Connor ends up perishing a few hours later but not before making Jeremiah promise he will keep Abby and Ava safe.

There’s so much going on that I just don’t know what to tell ya’ll and what not too. Abby, Jeremiah and Gary end up separated from everyone else but try to make it to the meet up point they had all designated. There are a lot of trials and errors before the end of this book.

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There’s a lot of loss in this book. We loose several of our favorite and beloved characters, one of which is Connor. I won’t name anyone else that dies but just know that I cried a few times reading this book. I love this series. I’m pretty sure with the way it was left the series is over but I really hope there is more too it! I really hope this series doesn’t end the way this book leaves off. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a great point to stop it but I REALLY like this series and want it to keep going. Am I being selfish? I’ll admit to being that way when it comes to this series and wanting it to continue! 😀

Ketyl is out on a scouting mission. Fire portals are popping up all over the forest. Ketyl ends up figuring out where all the portals are heading since they are in a straight line. They are heading towards a place called Fork Vale Fortress. What Ketyl can’t figure out is how they know about the fortress. A charred, a minion for the fire elementals, ends up showing up near Ketyl and he kills it.

He heads back towards his camp where his brother Karvir is. He hopes to be able to warn the fortress of the impending attack so they can prepare. Everyone at the fortress has known loss in one way, shape or form. They are all willing to fight until the end. Karvir and Ketyl lead a small army to try and stop the elementals from reaching the fortress.

The characters in this book are ones that you are immediately inclined to like or dislike. There really is no in-between with these characters. It’s either love or hate. You are rooting for the characters through everything and hoping they will win or at least get out alive.

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This post-apocalyptic book is an awesome read. I was drawn in from the first chapter until the last. The thing that really caught my eye was the cover. It captivated me and then reading the book made me entranced in the pages. I read this book in one sitting, forgoing sleep in order to finish it. This book is THAT good!